HEALTH experts are warning measles cases have risen by more than 300 per cent because more children are not receiving a vaccine.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) claimed more than 20 million children worldwide are not being given the life-saving inoculation each year, declaring the issue a, “public emergency.”

The WHO said decreased inoculation rates mean collective immunity- the concept where a disease is almost eradicated if a high enough proportion of people receive a vaccine, normally 95 per cent- is beginning to fail.

UNICEF reported around 169 million children did not receive the first part of the inoculation- which comes in two phases- between 2010 and 2017. The number of cases of measles worldwide in the first three months of 2019 has since reached more than 110,000, almost a 300 per cent increase on the same period last year.

Experts said they believe the decline in vaccination rates is due to unfounded concerns over safety.

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